Moses: A Growing Desperation

Moses was many things: a criminal by birth, a royal orphan, a murderer, a man stuck between two worlds, a fugitive, a husband, a shepherd, an observer of a burning bush, a mouthpiece of the God of the Israelites, a leader, a public councilor, and a friend of God. He was always a passionate person, whether in defending his people against the oppressive rule of Pharaoh or in reprimanding those same people for their rebellion against God. Whether he was petitioning for Israel before God, that God’s anger may not burn against His people, or allowing his own anger to burn against God’s people for their idol-worship, Moses lived and breathed passion.

Since his interaction with God on the holy ground around the burning bush, Moses was transformed from being a terrified murderer on the run to a fearless prophet of the Most High. He saw God’s mighty power and said, “I’m in”.

The incredible works of God in delivering His people from Egypt, from the Nile turning to blood to the Red Sea parting, may have been enough to capture the world’s imagination through DreamWorks’ 1998 classic animation Prince of Egypt, but they are only the beginning of the story. Though they surely built up Moses’ faith in God, they may not have had quite the same effect in building Moses’ friendship with God. While Moses was growing in his awe of God, it would only be once the people of Israel were finding their footing on the way to Canaan that their leader began to know the God who called him out of a career of shepherding sheep and into the field of shepherding people.

The years following Israel’s exodus from Egypt saw Moses grow closer and closer to God. Moses received the law of God to deliver to His people. Moses interceded for Israel when they grumbled against the freedom they had been given. Moses spent days and weeks in God’s presence, eating and drinking nothing, listening to God’s instructions on the construction of the tabernacle and its contents.

In the midst of this, Moses began to feel the holy fear he knew first at the burning bush become supplemented by a personal, intimate relationship with the God of wonders. God, who gave Moses His Name as “I AM WHO I AM” in Exodus 3, follows this up some thirty-one chapters later with a longer and more detailed introduction:

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.

What we see over these 30-or-so chapters is not a static relationship; this is not an employer-employee connection. Despite being the factual, historical genre of Old Testament narrative, there is more than enough evidence to see the budding and eventual blossoming of a genuine loving friendship between God and Moses.

To jump several hundred years forward, we know from Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

We may not know Moses’ favourite prayers. We may not know how often he confessed his sins or how loudly he sang in the congregation (though we do know that he sang!). But we do know that he earnestly sought God. We know that Moses had tasted of God’s presence and never went back. He was not perfect; he didn’t become a perfectly righteous man just by spending enough time with God. But he tasted of the goodness of God and knew that nothing else would ever satisfy.

A moment in the relationship of God and Moses that poignantly expresses Moses’ ever-growing need for God comes in Exodus 33. After Moses has petitioned on behalf of Israel, God tells him that He will do what Moses has asked because Moses has found favour in His sight. But God doesn’t stop there; He continues to say (with what I can only imagine is the sweetest affection that a human being can experience) that He does this because He knows Moses by name. Wow. What a moment.

And in response, Moses replies the only appropriate way:

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

Moses knew of God. He had heard all that was necessary for a priest to enter God’s presence, that even the altars of sacrifice had to be purified for use. So holy was this God that the only way to be near Him was through the shedding of blood in faith.

Moses, knowing this, cries out in desperation, “LET ME SEE YOU!”

He had been near God. He had walked with God. Every taste left him more desperate than the last. Despite being closer to God than anyone alive at his time, Moses was not content with a diminishing or even a steady supply: he needed more. When he had heard of God, he wanted to know of Him. When he knew of Him, he wanted to know Him. When he knew Him, he wanted to be near Him.

When he was near Him, Moses wanted to see Him.

God’s relationship with Moses is marked by two things: Moses’ desperation for more and God’s willingness to give more. The more of God Moses had, the more he wanted.

Can the same be said of us? A.W. Tozer describes a quintessential part of the effective Christian life as “a discontent with the status quo”. Friends, how’s your contentment?

It says in the same chapter of Exodus, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Isn’t this what we want? Do we not want constant, loving relationship with our incredible Deliverer?

Let us grow desperate for Him. May we, like Moses, long and plead to see more of His glory. Don’t waste time with God—He is always ready to pour out more of Himself into our lives. Why stop at hearing about God? Why stop at knowing of Him?

God is inviting us deeper.

May we find the courage to be utterly desperate for Him.